Preparing the grid for rare annular solar eclipse!

The chart is from a story published on California ISO’s new communications blog, ‘Energy Matters’ detailing the preparation and grid planning for the upcoming October 14, 2023, annular solar eclipse. The report’s authors are CAISO’s Jessica Stewart (Taheri), Senior Energy Meteorologist, and John Rudolph, Lead Forecast Modeler in the ISO Short-term Forecasting Unit. Since the total solar eclipse of 2017, grid-scale, and rooftop behind-the-meter solar capacity have grown by about 65% and 150% respectively across the ISO. The large footprint of solar capacity across CAISO and the eclipse’s western path makes this year’s event especially more difficult to manage. Of particular importance is the expected steep ramping conditions in solar generation and load during the event. Assuming clear-sky conditions at the time of the eclipse maximum, the grid-scale solar output will be reduced by 9,687 megawatts (MW), or about a 75% of the ISO’s usual available capacity, compared to a sunny October day at the same time. From the eclipse maximum to the eclipse end, solar production will increase by 10,800 MW over the course of 90 minutes. This is an increase of about 120 MW of grid-scale solar per minute — 10 times the normal rate of solar increase, or ramp. We will be keeping a close eye on how the grid performs.

California ISO blog post: https://lnkd.in/dcEhaTNB

I encourage everyone to explore other stories posted on ‘Energy Matters’ including a nice overview of the evolution of the Western Energy Imbalance Market (WEIM) published in late September: https://lnkd.in/dJ2YMuQ3